MeeMix, a new Israeli startup, has launched its beta program yesterday. MeeMix can best be described as a personalized internet radio community. It aims at identifying individual taste and taste prediction in media using its own behavioral-based algorithm and additional methodologies, created in-house.
MeeMix’s idea is similar to Pandora or Last.fm but it uses a different (and better) prediction method in identifying the user’s taste. As my friend Roi writes in his post on TechCrunch:
“Typically, there are two ways to perform such predictions:
- “Nature” (Pandora) – Decision making is based upon the compatibility between one song and another—personal taste not being part of the equation.
- “Nurture” (Last.fm
) – Decision making is based upon environmental factors—song compatibility not being part of the equation”
Gilad Shlang, CEO of MeeMix tells me: “We see personal preference as the right balance between NATURE and NURTURE. MeeMix believes that your genetic disposition, combined with your present and past experience, defines who you are today. By heeding to both nature and nurture, we are able to offer accurate and better results. For clarification, Nature is based solely on song classification - prepared by our top group of musicologists who analyzed hundreds of musical values- and Nurture is an individual’s own characteristics, combined with his or her interactions in our virtual surroundings. The MeeMix algorithm is a taste prediction tool that not only points out similar songs but also takes geographical, sociological, behavioral and physiological characteristics into account.”
MeeMix is also a social network allowing members to connect based on similar musical tastes, shared passions, or even by reading each other thoughts, journals, reviews, dreams, and secrets (the last available for their Mee friends only). A MeeMix member can broadcast his personal radio station to other members and share his tastes with the entire community. The broadcaster (or Mee’J) can always see his audience and communicate with them. The more listeners you have, the more popular you are, and the more prominent you will be on the site. For those of you who are really into self branding, you can even print out t-shirts with your channel name and number of subscribers.
The first page you will see in MeeMix is the MeePlayer which is, you guessed it, their player. This page is the entertainment system of the site; allowing the member to create multiple (personalized) stations, change the present “mood” of every station (its average beat rate,
level of surprise), and control the interactive features related to the currently playing track, such as adding to favorites, commenting, song rating, and more. The right hand side of the MeePlayer, named “YOU” or “Meet People”, is a living, talking and moving line of communication with other members. You will see YOU throughout the site, in the same place, ready for action.
The MeeMix world includes 4 main content sections:
1. Mee Style – the member’s personal corner in MeeMix. In Mee Style you can:
a. Check who is listening to your stations and contact your fans
b. Get updated on invitations you sent to friends
c. Update or edit your own profile
d. Receive messages from other members
2. Mee People – the MeeMix community. This will be your main meeting place, where you can:
a. Browse through other members’ thoughts
b. Search for people by:
i. Their personal musical style
ii. Member characteristics such as: age, location, sex and more
c. Check out who is listening to whom in MeeMix
3. Music – a section all about music, both in and out of the MeeMix world. If you are looking to browse through members’ stations or check out who is listening to whom, this is the place. In Music, you’ll find:
a. Radio station search by genre
b. Rising Star stations, which are stations with the highest fan growth
c. Most popular stations
d. The newest stations in MeeMix
e. Top 100 Songs in MeeMix
f. New Releases
4. The Source – Website owners and bloggers, this is the place you will find MeeMix widgets and other goodies that you can add to your site. Choose from widgets that present your favorite artists, Music style, Mee friends, and more.
I received an invite from Gilad for the MeeMix private beta and have been playing around with the application in the last two days. Apart from it being an amazing and unique product, MeeMix has one of the nicest and most user-friendly interfaces that I have ever seen.
Gilad was nice enough to give me 4 more invites. The first 4 people who comment back and say they want one, will get them.
Technorati tags:
meemix,
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radio,
community,
taste prediction,
pandora,
last.fm,
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music,
music player,
social tool,
social network,
broadcast,
music station,
songs,
bloggers,
widgets,
user interface
